The Word of the Day Is?

Progress! As in progress in Iraq. This morning I was struck by Liane Hansen's interview with Democratic Sen. Bob Casey about his short trip to Iraq. In asking about troops he met with, Hansen asks, "they gave you no idea about whether or not they thought PROGRESS was being made?" And then later in questioning him about his meetings with US leaders in Iraq she says, "When you sat down and had dinner with General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker what picture did they paint for you of the PROGRESS being made in Iraq?"

That is pretty amazing! What freaking progress? The Iraq project has been a criminal enterprise from the get-go and is an unmitigated disaster from any perspective (humanitarian, political, fiscal, military, strategic). An interesting little exercise is to search NPR's site for "progress in Iraq" and you get 160 hits whereas if you search for "lack of progress in Iraq" you get...4 hits!